The new way to become famous in the music industry

26Aug12

We all know that social media has changed the way people are becoming famous in today’s society. The music industry is no exception, especially this past year. Everyone has heard some version of the viral summer hit “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jebson. Ben Sisario describes how this song, unlike any other past summer pop song, “started off in left field and was helped along by Youtube and Twitter before coming to mainstream media.” This is becoming an increasingly popular way for artists that are not well known, such as Goyte and Fun, to have a number one hit. Just a year ago almost all hit songs were from artists that belonged to a major record label.

This trend is drastically changing how record companies are marketing music. “YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are now record labels’ textbook tools for starting a marketing campaign, and if the numbers there are big enough, they can be used in pitches to radio and television programmers” (Sisario). As a future arts administrator and looking to enter the field of orchestra and opera companies, I look at this scenario and wonder if there is someway this can be applied to the classical field? Is there a way we can get a classical video or tweet to become viral and further develop programming based on its success? Would this be beneficial to the organizations and their audience development?